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Europe – Like many a band, Scottish rock superstars Biffy Clyro have just embarked on a busy summer of festival appearances with a headline slot at Download.

“The only way to spend the Summer,” said creative lead Richard Larkum, “And so it is, but a lumpy restart to all things touring has seen us need to devise four different scales of shows depending on where we are playing. We also have a leg in Germany coming up in August that demands another big system and I will revise yet again. It’s a constant thought process in that August is already in the back of my mind.”

A bonus for trucking companies as the four to five systems leapfrog their way around Europe, but for main suppliers Neg Earth Lights and Video Design it is quite a challenge. Production manager Jerry Hough described it succinctly while backstage at Download, “Every supplier is having a tough time at the moment with availability and finding crew. Fortunately, we have long term relations with both companies and that has been reflected in the excellent way we are being supported now. They have really stepped up to the mark. Talk to Alex at Video Design and you’d think this was a normal summer; that’s very reassuring on a festival schedule as complex as this.”

Larkum, meanwhile, has that ability to make it all sound easy. “Download was all LED based, lots of hi-def screen surfaces everywhere: a big upstage screen, on curved riser fronts and a number of hanging LED rectangles I refer to as the Tetris pieces. Lighting is also LED: Ayrton Khamsins, Robe Spiiders and GLP JDCs. As we left Download a slightly scaled down Scandinavian rig was already on the ferry to Norway while we flew out to Prague for our next show with rig version three. The start has been very successful, the prep of equipment from Neg and Video Design has been faultless. My lighting team led by crew chief Alex Peters have been fantastic. The band are really happy, the punters are loving it, and I’m really glad I’m back doing what I love.”

The show is based around the band’s two most recent albums, ‘Celebration’ and ‘Myth’. “The visual artwork of the covers has determined the look,” confirmed Larkum. “Based on Misty Buckley’s original design outlined before Covid interrupted our flow, what we have now all springs from those two sources. A high point of the shows is when James (the bass player) grabs a camera and feeds headshots to our video director Oscar Sansom. Video Design have added a paint strip effect via Notch onto our d3 (Disguise) server which I trigger from my Hog 4 console. It’s something that stems from the band’s own Instagram filter. The Notch effect does the same thing there, a blue strip across the eyes of the headshot for Celebration, a red strip for Myths. Lots of the fans in the audience recognise it immediately but it’s such a great effect the response is always huge.”

Despite the differences in system designs the show is as cohesive as it can be, the punters get an authentic, distinctive Biffy show. Interestingly, the changes in video disposition have seen Larkum adopt an asymmetric approach to lighting for the big system. “I’ve had to revise my thinking about focusing, it’s a different thought process than a symmetrical rig, but it makes a great impression, a world away from the more traditional all symmetric look of the older rock bands. Either way, the band always feels comfortable and familiar with whatever presentation package we build around them.”

Article Credit: et now

Photo Credit: Joe Guppy 

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World renowned American rock band, The War on Drugs, have spent the first 4 months of 2022 touring the UK and Europe showcasing their newly released album, I DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE.

Production manager Jimmy Russo and Lighting Designer Ben Silverstein, who have both been working with The War on Drugs for several years, enlisted the help of Neg Earth Lights to supply the tour with lighting, rigging, and network and control equipment.

Ben explains, ‘One of the challenges was to design something that would be scalable from 1,000 to 2,000 capacity venues all the way up to the O2 arena’s 20,000 capacity. We constantly needed to go from ‘A-rig,’ to B-rig,’ to Z-rig,’ and back with a system that would be compatible for each. Dave Ridgway and Gavin Maze understood those challenges and really did some backflips to make it happen for us.’

Neg Earth Lights’ Project Manager, Gavin Maze, was the key contact for Jimmy and Ben. Gavin took Ben from vision to reality with our fantastic CAD team providing lighting plots, rigging plots and custom fabrication solutions and welcomed The War on Drugs crew to Neg Earth’s HQ in London for rehearsals in the LH3 Studio, where they could see the rig and lighting fully set up.

‘This project was a perfect example of what Neg do best, all departments working together to make sure Ben got the show he wanted. Having them in our LH3 studio space with our workshops and warehouse team in the same building meant that any tweaks that needed to be made could be done speedily without holding up programming,’ states Gavin.

Ben continues, ‘A huge advantage for us too was using the LH3 production space at Neg Earth to get the whole rig set-up and prepared for all of the various venues we would be performing at whilst on tour. We had all our backline, audio gear and crew at LH3 studio to do a full set up prior to the tour. It was a perfect facility for the team to work and sort out how the production needed to come together.’

The lighting rig featured Ayrton Khamsin-S and Robe Robin Spikie LED WashBeam controlled by a full size GrandMA3 Console and network infrastructure. The simplistic, yet effective staging and lighting layout gave the illusion that the band members were playing in an illuminated cube, the theme and colour changing with each number The War on Drugs played.

Ben highlights how this set up was far from usual, ‘The use of LH3 pre-production was crucial because the design has a full rectangle on the floor and in the air of X4-Bar20s which totally cuts off any stage access. The only way to enter and exit the stage was to step over the lights and the only cable access was through the little gaps in corners. Obviously creating something that has no stage access is not a normal thing to do, but the band and crew was fully supportive and were fine with stepping over lights to access the stage.’

Gavin also assembled a highly skilled team of freelance crew to support The War on Drugs Tour.

Ben gave a special mention to this, ‘Neg Earth provided us with the most incredible crew who made it happen every day. Mr. Keith, Craig, T.O, and our tour rigger Nippy just did an incredible job everyday without fail. On ‘B-rig’ or ‘Z-rig’ days they were always finding solutions to get the most bang for our buck at each venue.’

Gavin concludes, ‘it was a pleasure to work with Jimmy and Ben once again. Their productions get more ambitious each time they come over and it’s great fun collaborating with them to achieve their vision.’

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Article credit: Neg Earth Lights.

Photo Credit: Jessie Kamp (Netherlands) and Neg Earth Lights (London O2).

Tour Manager: Craig McQuiston

Production Manager: Jimmy Russo

Lighting / Production Design: Ben Silverstein & John Frattalone

Crew Chief: Mr. Keith Johnson

LX Crew: Craig Ralph, T.O. Robertson

Tour Rigger: Steven “Nippy” Williams

FOH: Matthew Walsh

Monitors: Ricardo Garcia

Audio Tech: Rob Greene

Backline: Dominic East, Josh Goldsmith, Eddie Chappa

Tour Coordinator: Lori Delancey

Merch: Swax